Pages

Friday, June 24, 2016

I was really good about starting most classes (excluding quiz days, normally) with a warm up problem or two. I loved how it got the kids working immediately, gave me time to get my stuff together for class, and even gave me a few minutes to check homework (if I was going to).

And, most importantly, I think a lot of learning happened through those warm ups. Sometimes it was from kids asking each other for help, sometimes it was prompting them to think about a problem a different way, sometimes it was extending their thinking on a problem. Sometimes I reviewed a topic we hadn't seen in a while, sometimes I gave a question as a preview of things to come.

When it appeared that most were done, I'd take a few minutes to talk through (or have students talk through) the answer. This could take up to 15 minutes in class total.

In one of my evaluations a mention was made by my principal about setting a timer; it's something I always considered doing but didn't want to push kids through the problem without giving them a chance to think. And yet it would help with the dawdlers who I constantly had to tell to get working.

I gave the kids a new warm up sheet every two weeks; it has 10 blank spots on it, so after those two weeks were up I would collect the sheet and give them a completion score. One point per day that we had a warm up. So basically, not a big deal unless you didn't turn in the sheets a few times.

I've toyed with the idea of having the kids leave their warm ups in the table folders with the idea that I would periodically check them. I haven't figured out why that isn't a good idea yet. Aside from not making the kids responsible for a paper for 10 days in a row.

So here's my question...

Do you do warm ups in class? If so, how do you work it? Do you set a timer? Do you grade them? Do you have a better way of doing warm ups?

Sorry, that's more than one question. But all feedback is appreciated!

Monday, June 20, 2016

A learner who works well in groups and is somewhat outgoing would do best in your class because they can get help from and check answers with friends, and an outgoing learner would do well because your class requires a decent amount of participation

Auditory and visual learners that are great on repetition. I study notes often and did the practice work sheets along with then the screen casts and practice sheets when i would repeat the notes to myself over and over made it easy to learn a lot of the information. Especially when you would give demonstrations of certain things on the board because once I studied it I would be able to understand why you did something.

Any learner because you gave many examples that helped me learn better

One who doesn't mind taking notes. Your notes are very helpful and i didn't mind taking them most of the time but people who don't like to take notes would find it boring.

Classical learner: Listen how to do problems then do examples

Any learner because the class is well laid out.

A person ready to learn about math. If you go in not thinking it is worth your time, obviously it won't be a good year. A learner who is more math based and not picture based since we used more word equations than pictures I believe.

Seeing because of what we do on the board.

Listener and visual learner because that was the two main ways we learned

Listener, a lot of talking

One who can visualize aspects of equations because not all steps are shown sometimes

Note-takers because there were a lot of notes

A listener because you generally give us notes then go straight to a work sheet

Note taker, and paper person, lots of paper and notes

What type of learner would struggle in my class and why?

A lazy learner because the class does have some work that helps to succeed

Someone who needs to see pictures represent things. The triangles and real life situation problems are the best.

Listening because if they aren't paying attention it will be hard to catch up.

Someone who didn't listen well because you explained most of the things we learned.

Visual, we don't see things a lot.

One who needs every detail.

Non notes-based learners because there were a lot of notes.

Maybe a person to needs to see not just hear.

Hands on because there is a lot of visuals.

I think a shy learner would struggle because they are afraid to ask questions, even though you are a teacher who is truly more than willing to help.

A lazy one. You reached out to a lot of different types of people you were also so awake and full of energy in the morning it keeps things from getting too repetitious which can come from a pure lecture style the demonstrations and funny examples and jokes keep things engaging. With the content being difficult at times if a student doesn't study and do the basics (like homework) it will be very difficult for them to learn.

I think that only someone who wasn't doing their work or weren't listening would struggle.

One who doesn't like to take notes or someone who does poorly on tests and quizzes. I'm not the best test taker but I always do my homework so it was a struggle to keep a solid A when my test grades would bring it down.

When you're fifty years old, what will you remember about our time together? What will stick with you?

All the fun things we did that may not have involved math at all. The friendships that I made with other kids in my class and with the seniors will stick with me.

-b +- (Squre Root) b(squared) - 4ab all over 2a. I will also remember how nice you were and how caring you were over students

My friends that I made by picking my own seat.

Yes because you were my favorite teacher and I learned the most from you. I never saw you get frustrated.

That you were really nice.

The games and extended review we had and the hot room haha

Nothing because I'll be really old. Maybe notes and stuff.

Probably not.

Most likely not.

I will definitely remember learning about fractals and hearing your stories!

Our awesome relationship. You told a lot of jokes and made me really smile and laugh. I looked forward to your class every single day and I will remember that for a long time.

I will probably remember some of the projects we did.

When you gave us our own personal unit circle which was laminated.

There's a good chance I'll be senile (it strikes early in my family), but if I remember anything it will likely be the derivatives despite the short amount of time they took. I enjoyed how they worked.

Anything else you'd like me to know?

I hope you have an amazing summer, keep up the good work. See you sometime in the fall, I will miss having you as a teacher.

Good job and try to draw straighter lines on the graphs or I will do it for you!! :)

Overall you're a great teacher! Best math teacher I've had since 5th grade probably

You have very pretty handwriting (ha!)

I thought you were a really great teacher and I hope you know some stuff about calculus because if you do I will probably come back to you for some help! You always made me laugh and I looked forward to coming to your class.

Thank you

I really enjoyed having you as my teacher!

I really enjoyed your class. Above on this survey, I was having a tough time coming up with anything negative. You are very good at your job. I'm kind of a math person but in past years I have had math teacher who ruined it for me. You are a very nice teacher (one of my favorites) and I thought you taught very well. I always wanted to give kudos to you because you were very patient with our class. Particularly with annoying kids who asked 10 million questions about things you had just gone over. Anyways, keep doing what you do because you made Math bearable :) Have a good summer.

Not really. It's been a good year and I hope I do well on the test tomorrow.

My take on it...

I'm happy with these responses. Every student is going to view the class in a different way, especially considering their own strengths and learning style. I try to make my class one that students enjoy and from what I've read, I've succeeded. The focus on note-taking was pretty major (in both a good and bad way) and that's definitely something I'd like to change.

Also, I was amused at the students who said "Good job". I don't think as a high schooler I had the awareness of how my teachers did their job. This reminds me of earlier in the year when one of the students made a comment about how much work I did for them. Again, I don't recall having that awareness as a student.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

I posted a form on Schoology the last week or so of school to give the kids an opportunity for feedback. And then I didn't check the results because I didn't want to know. No, not that I didn't want to know, but that I was a little worried to see what they would say. Only a few filled it out (I didn't make it a big deal) and the results are conflicting, but interesting.I did it via a form that I found on twitter that someone shared (sorry - I don't remember who!). It basically asked the kids to list up to 4 things to keep, 4 to change, 4 to start, and 4 to stop. (My comments in italics.)Here are the results. (This got waaay long, so I split it up into 2 posts.)

Keep:

Interactive notes on the projector (5)

Warm-ups (5)

Games with boards (?)

You always make sure [we] know the material before we test

Review sessions (4)

trashketball

Being funny and letting kids chose their seats. I worked really well with the people I was near and have some great memories your class is a lot of fun

Give time in class to work on homework (2)

No MathXL

MathXL (different class)

Exam reviews (2)

Review games

Worksheets (amount) (2)

Weekly agenda (I posted my plan for the week on a board in my room.)

Quizzes instead of tests (just the name quiz makes it less stressful)

Graded homework (always something for me to re-think in the summer!)

Spend lots of time on notes when we start a new topic

Online exams

Transitions between units

Going over homework

MathXL with factoring practice was so helpful for keeping the basics of first semester in mind because it made exam review much easier

Posting things on Schoology. It's a great way for keeping informed and helps students who are easily confused like myself and the notes you gave were a big help.

Change:

Homework (what? how?)

Less homework (2)

Go over tests

That you choose seats

Go over all aspects of problems because sometimes it doesn't shop up that way on tests

Warm ups: I liked doing them on Schoology

Have more review games in class (2)

Length of notes: make them short and simple to understand

More time to do homework in class

Sit in table groups (the rows were less conducive to group learning and discovery) (yes!!)

Break practice exam on Schoology into sections

Maybe a little more review before quizzes

Give credit (or lack thereof) for every homework assignment

Class setup (?)

More in class time (to work?)

Go slower

Homework every night (there wasn't... maybe this person wish there had been?)

More opportunities for extra credit (2)

Partner projects: I liked them, but I like it if we could work with more than one other person

More problems on review sheets

Amount of homework (we have 9 (6) other bells, possibly 9 (6) other bells of homework and a life to live outside of school as well) (Funny, because their typical assignments were less than 10 problems. I'd have trouble shortening them any more and still feeling good about the practice they were getting.)

Have MathXL be extra credit

Do a warm up every day

Pizza boxes sometimes worked but all need to be in one direction or it doesn't work (I used pizza boxes to create barriers during quizzes. Adjacent students also had different quizzes. Nothing's perfect, but I thought this would be pretty good.)

But only to the people who do their work and deserve it but maybe got a few bad grades on tests or quizzes

It would be helpful for me, but learning benefits are dubious. This recommendation is less of something that you should do and more something I would prefer that you do.

Slow down a little for students who struggle with the current topic

More partner work

Split up BOB into the chapters (it takes forever to find the answers in one big BOB) (I posted the odd answers for the kids to check their work. BOB = back of book)

If early exam review on MathXL doing it in class after due date would be really helpful instead of independent review (I'm not sure what exactly this means... go over assigned exam review problems together?)

More projects

A note sheet at the end of the year with the most important things to know

Be able to ask more questions

Quiz corrections

Help struggling students with extra material to help them review better

Short practice quizzes or tests for large unit test on Schoology or MathXL for independent review

Group assignments (which, IMO, only one person out of the group actually does)

Reward system? Candy? Homework passes?

Perhaps go deeper into derivatives? I enjoyed that unit. (Wish I'd had time!)

Stop:

Being so lenient. I liked how you are ready to help but sometimes people became such a distraction and it was hard to learn. (TRUTH. I'm too nice sometimes and it causes issues.)

Giving homework.

MathXL (5)

Some of them are pretty tricky. Or at least give more attempts per question. (I would limit them to 2 - 3 tries per question.)

Teaching so fast

Don't teach new stuff the week that exams start (even though they had 3 days in class to review beforehand...)

Warmups (3)

Some of them are tough and having math early in the day makes warmups dreaded

The tables (I didn't know anyone at my table and no one there made an effort to include me, so I didn't learn as well). (That's sad. But I also think this person should have made an effort to meet people. With juniors in high school do I need to do ice breakers to learn names?)

Overall I thought the class was awesome and your class was really fun you are a great teacher

Here's my take on the perfect class.No homework every night, and every homework is graded. For completion. And make it short.More time in class to review and play games but go slower on the new material.Lots of extra credit.Keep warm ups, and yet don't.Got it.